Round Two, Getting Info (Vitale)

[Deleted]

Desmond had a busy day so far, he tested engine number four to make sure it was cycling the way he wanted, he kicked Kyle out of the core for arguing with him, again. He spent a good portion of the day in the armory performing maintenance on all the weapons they had there, apparently a few members of the crew who hadn't gone on the mission had blown off some steam. He'd have to remember to give a lecture on proper weapon maintenance the next chance he got. He then spent another couple of hours with his head stuck in engine one trying to figure out what the grinding sound coming from it was, needless to say he was angry when he pulled a lost wrench out of the engine.

Dez pushed his cart through the halls, getting a few odd looks, and even a few worried looks from members of the crew that passed him. Corvey was going to shit bricks when he saw what was on this cart, he couldn't help but think that he should have grabbed a air freshener to mask the scent. Oh well, hindsight was twenty twenty and all that. Desmond stopped outside the door to the brig and looked at Vitale, shrugging as the other man looked over the tools. "You know the man isn't a machine right?" Desmond looked down at his tools again and shrugged, "Well, we want information out of him right? I gotta fix him before he'll talk, right?"

Vitale opened the door and Dez pushed his cart in, positioning it just perfect so that Corvey would see it when he opened his eyes. For added drama, yes he saw this in a movie, he covered the cart with a cloth. He then walked around Corvey a few times, looking up at Vitale. "So how you wanna play this one? Want me to go get more coffee and donuts?" He joked, he wasn't about to lose another cup of coffee to Vitale. Never did get that one back, he'd have to remember to play a good joke on Vitale when he got the chance. Maybe finally set up that crotch level paintball gun in his doorway, all he'd have to do is pay Nate off with some alcohol, maybe a few of Vitale's magazines and Nate would be quiet.

Dez sighed and rolled his head around a few times, his neck popping in a few places before he reached out and grabbed Corvey's hood. "Rise and shine Patty Cake." He stated, hitting Corvey on the back of the head a couple times. Not hard, just hard enough to wake the bastard up. "We got more questions for you, you had a few days to rest and think it over." They'd talked about this briefly earlier today. They needed to keep the man off his game, make him think he was screwed royally. "How long has it been? Six, seven days? I lost track, too much fun I suppose." He retreated to stand by his tools, not uncovering them just yet. He let Vitale talk for a bit first, then when the time was right, he pulled the cloth off with a flourish.

Dez cracked a smile and picked up a lug wrench, "Kneecaps." Then a pair of pliers, "The rest of your fingernails." A pair of wire cutters, ones that looked in as bad shape as they were, rusty and dull. "Your nose." Finally he picked up a blowtorch. "These are for two things really... Well, maybe five. Your right and left testicle, and the rest of your fun parts. I'll cook em up with this for you, then you'll eat them. When every bite is gone, your eyes will be next." After he started talking the smile faded slightly, what was left looked like the devil himself had put it there. Dez was starting to scare himself with this act.

Corvey paled and looked between the two men for a few seconds. "What is this? Good cop, bad cop?" Desmond couldn't help himself, he let out a long and loud bark like laugh. He supposed that was a good way to put it, but not for the way they had planned this out. This was a field he'd let Vitale answer though, and instead he stood there and continued to pick up tools and name body parts.

[Deleted]

Vitale had spent the majority of his night digging up the life and times of a cop who'd been made to disappear by people who didn't want her dug back up. The task had originally been daunting, but as time went by, he began to have some help. It wasn't planned, but Ollie and Nate were on the bridge anyway, triple clearing their tails. After Vi had pulled his hair for the sixth or so time, Nate had inquired. At first, Vi hadn't been more than just suggestive about the idea of what he was digging into. After all. These boys, cool as they may be, were Syndicate in name and blood. Wouldn't these be the worst people to discuss this with? But, as the night drudged on, Nate kept coming over to help Vitale find new routes to go with search trials, and eventually Ollie finished up, and when he started paying attention, he had the issue picked apart in under twenty minutes. Once they put together that Abigail was Abigail, the conversation rebooted, and changed direction. An hour later, Vi felt like he'd done nothing but defend the very woman he'd been tying to the steak not six hours ago. However, in the end, both pilots agreed that it was a sound theory, and they both agreed that had it been their dad...

So they started digging to be sure that she was who she claimed to be. Ollie was the first to find the tip of the iceberg. He found her home planet of Bernadette, then they found her service jacket, then they found the 'news clippings' pertaining to her father's death and the fact was, it only served to confirm her story. A veteran cop gunned down in the line of duty, and not so much as a mention of his deeds, nor even a date for the department to mourn him. Nothing. Suspicious, sure, but hardly enough to stop there. They kept digging all night, and discussing their findings with one another, and in the end, the three decided to take Gunn on faith. She'd known Nate and Ollie a lot longer than Vitale, and she'd been a loyal Syndy girl from day one. According to the pilots, she was actually a rising star and considered one of the more regarded of the racket in general. Not everyone had heard of Lewis for instance, but pretty much everyone knew "Killer Keller". She'd fought, bled and paid for her admission onto this ship as an advocate of her boss, the very man she openly told Vitale she wanted to kill. Now, don't get it twisted, neither Nate nor Ollie wanted Onas dead, but they were also very sure that Onas didn't kill a cop from Bernadette. All Vitale could get them to say about it was that "He just doesn't work that way VI," and on this, they were very confident. So it kinda looked like a borderline setup but then, they all agreed that it was completely within Knox's range of dirty deeds. Nate was pretty clear that Knox would do just about any job for the status, rather than the reward. But there were things that didn't add up, that much was clear.

By "morning," Vitale was running on caffeine and a half eatin plate of protein designed for some kind of low gravity stimulation crap that Nate swore by. Whatever it did, his eyes itched, and he was as thirsty as he could imagine, but he was certainly awake. One of the three amigo's came to grab him, Kyle as it were, and told him that Corvey had been returned to his room, and that Desmond was ready for the next round. He also asked Vitale to speak with Desmond about wrenches, and who owned what on this boat, and who'd worked longer with this core. Vi made no promises, it sounded personal anyway. He met Desmond in the hall outside of Corvey's cell. Dez had a cart full of toys with him, and some of them had some eerily familiar smells. Like one, that had that dried dirt copper smell of crusted blood. He'd told Desmond they were going to give Pat a tune-up, though he didn't think that Dez would take it so literally. Still, he smiled mischievously at the idea of finding ways to use these tools to cause untaught pains. "You know the man isn't a machine right," He joked, and they exchanged some quick humor about their next round. At the entrance though, you'd swear it was any two men but the ones who'd opened the door. Desmond became a sadist, and a bruiser. Vitale became a smoker, and idly watched as Dez went through his best threats yet. "Patty cake"... damn, Vi would have to step up his game.

Desmond made a few comments that got increasingly sadistic, and finally, at long last, Corvey paled several shades. He was buying it. Still, his self defense walls were up. "What is this? Good cop, bad cop?" Tali' would see what he could do about that.

"Good cop," He asked, sounding genuine, "No. He's more like... my pit bull. I hold the leash. Do you like stories Patricia?" Vi sat down on a chair directly in front of Corvey, and leaned on his knees comfortably. "I like stories. Let me tell you a fun one. About three months ago, an old friend came to me with a problem, a real big problem. Now. We're old friends, we go back what Dez? Six, seven years?"

Desmond confirmed seven.

"Seven then," Vi said, ashing the chalky tobacco he'd been given by Ollie, who swore it was the finest Persephonian Cigarettes Plat could buy, "Three months ago, my friend," Vitale nodded to Desmond as he said this, "Came to me about his kid sister. She's a sweet gal. Young, ambitious artist. Perhaps a bit naive, but even I'll admit, there is talent in those brushes. She'd been living in the Core and had to downgrade to a certain level of housing to stay there, as her financial situation deteriorated. Then, three months ago, she disappeared... after a short trip to Santo."

Corvey looked at Desmond with a renewed sense of dread. "Ahh. You know this story?" Patty's eyes darted between them as Vi continued, dropping the cigarette to the ground to grind it out under his heel for effect, and continuing. "You see. I like Dez here, and I like his family. Not that I'm a family man, but I envy the tight knit thing his has. Also, I wouldn't be alive, if this man hadn't taken several bullets for me. So you can imagine, when his sister was taken, I paid close attention to his request to get her back. You may remember her even. Red hair, green eyes, slender frame. Thick accent." A light actually looked to click on in Corvey's head, which made Vi internally laugh, as he'd made that description up on the fly. What kind of bastard was this guy?

"I can help you find your si..." Corvey began to say, but Dez slammed his jaw shut with a right hook from nowhere.

"We found her." Even as the revelation left VI's lips, Corvey could read the future, and his face told that tale as well, "She died on Paquin in a dirty basement. OD'd on that crap you all give them." Dez looked to go after Corvey again, but Vi waved him down quickly, and crossed one leg over his kneecap. "See. We avenged her death at the time, but then we found out how deep this whole thing goes. My favor sort of ran out last month, when the poh dun who was holding her was dealt with. But. You work for people who I despise, and am in the business of outbidding. One man in particular. So you see. We took you. We own you, the way you owned my dead friend. And after a week in my hospitality, you haven't even been looked for. Desmond here want's to kill you, but, I want to keep you alive, so long as you're helping my company. Here's my offer to you. You help me. Desmond's lease stays on, and you live. I get promoted, make double a year what I make now, and eventually, maybe, you get to live outside of this little room. Maybe I'll sell you to a nice couple somewhere who need general labor done. The kind you might even escape from. Don't talk to me about your company's secrets, and the leash comes off. Or. The gloves come off."

"What do you want?" Corvey asked, staring at Desmond, the avenger of dead sisters.

"I already told you days ago. Benzene Sire, file four, three, eight, one, one, dash one four." Vitale said, as Corvey was already telling him that he didn't know any code by that designation and shaking his head no, and Vitale got louder, then calmer. "I... am not the one on borrowed time here. Trust me, you don't want to be on my bad side when that hourglass drains of sand."

Corvey groaned, "But I don't know this case!"

Vitale nodded for Dez to do his thing, but keep it under control, and so went a round of loud, painful sounding beatings and playtime. At long last, Vitale came at the man again, calm as ever. "You do understand that he's holding back right. This is only a taste of whats to come, because for you to help me, you have to be able to hear, talk, walk, read. Don't help me, and it's burnt rule books. Why do this for your bosses?"

Desmond was pulling a fingernail off as Corvey spat out between gasps, "Which boss? Who do you want?" His eyes were as wide as eggs. Vitale snapped his fingers and Dez instantly stopped.

"I want Marcus Lee." Vi said in a dead tone.

Corvey's eyes snapped clear. Just how big was this name to Cobalt, they were fixing to find out. "He's way above my pay grade, I couldn't possib, Oh God!" Corvey screamed and thrashed as Dez continued.

"Hey, it's your life Cor..." Vitale started to say, when his pad went off with an alert. It had been thirty minutes. Dez stopped, and Vitale walked right over, and checked the pad over, a sudden silence creeping through the room as VI turned off the alarm, and stood there looking at the pad's blank screen, and swiping his finger slowly across it. "Well Dez. It appears I owe you fifty Plat. It worked."

He started for the door, gathering his few possessions. "I told you the hourglass was against you. You're still holding out for that rescue a week overdue and not yet started. Ha! What a joke. We planted a cipher worm in your drives when we took you, and it took longer than I thought to break your firewalls. But," Vi held up the pad, and it displayed a bunch of scrolling diagnostics that Kyle had given him. Looked like a bunch of important stuff downloading to fast to be discernible. "It just did. Desmond, enjoy yourself, and try to make it last. Nothing like a three day binge on revenge. Gentlemen." Vi tipped his non-existent hat and started out the door. Corvey had been reeling at the sudden change in momentum and prospective and only just got out;

"Wait!" Vitale stopped, and looked at the man, raising his eyebrows. "Not everything's in the computer."

Vitale stopped, and stepped back inside, closing the door behind him. "Yeah," He said and stepped in front of Corvey, "You got something to tell me don't you?"

"You want the inside track, you want to make Lee look bad, and make yourself look good? I can give you something huge. But I want freedom."

"Pretty severe demand."

"Pretty severe intel."

Vitale looked from Corvey to Desmond, then back to Corvey, "Then I'll think about it. Start talking..."

[Deleted]

Desmond moved from his space on the wall and circled Corvey and Vitale slowly as the pair started talking. A small smile crossing his lips, so far everything was going according to plan. "Good cop," He asked, sounding genuine, "No. He's more like... my pit bull. I hold the leash. Do you like stories Patricia?" Vi called him Patricia... Desmond would need to come up with a new nickname for Corvey now. "I like stories. Let me tell you a fun one. About three months ago, an old friend came to me with a problem, a real big problem. Now. We're old friends, we go back what Dez? Six, seven years?" Dez pretended to think for a moment, "Seven." Vi continued, "Three months ago, my friend," Vitale nodded to Desmond as he said this, "Came to me about his kid sister. She's a sweet gal. Young, ambitious artist. Perhaps a bit naive, but even I'll admit, there is talent in those brushes. She'd been living in the Core and had to downgrade to a certain level of housing to stay there, as her financial situation deteriorated. Then, three months ago, she disappeared... after a short trip to Santo."

Desmond prepared himself for the next part of the act, he had suggested using his sister for the emotional reaction he could use from his memories. He hadn't told Vitale how angry he would be, or why it would work to help this along, but he still needed to prepare. "You see. I like Dez here, and I like his family. Not that I'm a family man, but I envy the tight knit thing his has. Also, I wouldn't be alive, if this man hadn't taken several bullets for me. So you can imagine, when his sister was taken, I paid close attention to his request to get her back. You may remember her even. Red hair, green eyes, slender frame. Thick accent." Corvey spoke up then, "I can help you find your si..." The thought of his sister actually being in this man's clutches crossed his mind and Dez launched a right hook shutting the man up.

Vitale went into detail about how they had already found his sister and gotten revenge, prompting Dez to speak up again. "And you have so far gotten off easy compared to him." He suspected that if his voice had been poison, right then everyone on this ship would have died. Or at the absolute least would be fighting over the bathroom for the next six months. Everything was going according to plan so far, Vitale finished his next set of lines and Corvey was caving, realizing that it was his only path to surviving. He was starting to talk, but of course he knew nothing of the made up file they were talking about. This caused the beginning of Desmond's next part, a nod from Vitale told him it was time.

Desmond started with the lug wrench that he had promised to be used on Corvey's kneecaps, and he did just that. Two loud cracks filled the room as the previously stated body parts were struck, Corvey would think they were broken but Dez hadn't hit that hard. He spun the wrench around and brought it down on the man's feet possibly cracking bone but not breaking it fully, dropping it on the man's feet when he was done. Plucking the icepick from it's place on his cart he found a new place to store it, namely a nice space in Corvey's shoulder where a pressure point was. One that Desmond knew from experience hurt like a bitch. A solid left cross connected with Corvey's chin, and a uppercut from his right landed right in the man's solar plexus. This was followed with a backhanded slap to the man's face, Desmond thought he heard the man's neck pop. "Ohhh did that hurt Nick Knack Patty Whack?" He ended that sentence with one more whack to Corvey's already injured knee, enticing a nice loud scream from the man.

Desmond crabbed two small clamps and his pliers from his cart and then went behind Corvey and started prying off his fingernails from his still intact hand. This was when Vitale decided to start talking again. Vitale made a comment about needing to be able to walk. "Sorry Vi, he'll be able to walk with help I promise." Now came the part about bosses, as Corvey was asking which boss they wanted, Dez pulled off the final finger nail. Of course he denyed everything about Lee, so Desmond used both the clamps on Corvey's hands, the pressure point in between the thumb and index finger hurt like a bitch. And now Corvey had clamps on both of them, ones that would be tightened at regular intervals. A beep interrupted everyone, Dez stopped mid torture.

"Well Dez. It appears I owe you fifty Plat. It worked." Desmond smiled and let off another bark like laugh, reminding Corvey about the pitbull comment. "Well, I'll be sure to collect later. I'm a little occupied right now." Vitale said a few more things that Desmond barely listened too, until he was told to enjoy himself. "I'm going for five days." There was a sadistic tilt to his voice that surprised even him, it was a good thing Corvey couldn't see him.

"Wait!" Desmond was just getting ready to start working again too. "Not everything's in the computer."

Vitale closed the door and returned, Desmond stood straight so the two could talk more. "Yeah," So this started the next part, "You got something to tell me don't you?"

"You want the inside track, you want to make Lee look bad, and make yourself look good? I can give you something huge. But I want freedom."

"Pretty severe demand."

"Pretty severe intel."

Desmond looked at Vitale and nodded, then walked out from behind Corvey and stood behind Vitale with his arms crossed. "Then I'll think about it. Start talking..."

[Deleted]

Corvey twitched a little but otherwise remained silent for a moment as his pain grew numb. His breathing was well beyond ragged, but he was still experiencing shock. Davis had said keep him alive. He was alive. "Time's wasting," Vitale informed the man while he was in his throes. Corvey got his breath together, and began, "I can tell you about the place. But," He paused, and looked nervous to say, "I don't see you being able to exploit it. The legality of this is questionable at best. Lee's good at this thing."

"I'll make those calls. Just talk." Vi crossed his arms and looked back to Desmond, before turning smoldering eyes on Patricio.

"There's a base on the forth moon of Elphame. Sweethome." Vitale double checked to be sure they were recording this, and looked back at Corvey, who took a moment for himself. Vi wasn't sure if it was pain, or pride, but he gave the man his time. "It's just a dirt rock." When he said it, it sounded like he hated the place, and tried to cover his distaste, "Lee has a stronghold where he keeps war runoff."

"Runoff?" Vi asked shaking his head unclear of the meaning.

Corvey looked at him like it was obvious and smirked with a short, curt, low grunting laugh. "Arms dealers. We ran arms to people.. Ah..." Corvey winced again, looking straight up, and he continued after he got control of himself. "They have a lot of men there. It's just suppose to be a cargo dump. Excess fuel from space ops, excess gear that is left over after jobs... eh.. ah... the client.." He was struggling now, "Stuff we bought from our clients when a job was completed. I don't, haah, None of that's correct. It's an arms depot, Lee uses it to supply men who he's after. It's leverage."

Vi looked at the man curiously, "If I didn't know better, I'd say you sounded like you didn't approve."

Corvey strained and peered at the ceiling, wincing, "Six months ago, we were fighting these guys on the rim, same moon. Now, were suddenly supplying them with excess stores." He looked back to Vitale, "Not everyone likes this backdoor dealing. Lee's people tell me there's a bigger picture. We don't..." Corvey looked down, "We didn't all get in this to traffic."

"My heart goes out to you." Vitale smugly retorted. His voice had drawn dry as sand. What was that, pity?

"The installation's under a construction company front. I think it's still the only one there, but it's the only one with concrete walls. Shouldn't be too hard to find."

Vitale stopped him there, putting his stylus away. Whatever slip that was, Vi needed to know right then what it was about. If he was being played, or what he'd pried out of the man. Once he had his own details, he and Desmond could rip the rest from his skin if necessary. Maybe Davis would get the rest. Either way, mission accomplished, Lee's name specific, and dirt on him. "Entrapment huh? That's a start." Vitale started for the door and added, "Keep co-operating, and you may well see fresh air again."

"What about the rest?" What about setting me free is what he was asking, Vitale stopped at the door, and smiled nastily, then looked at Desmond long enough for sweat to form on Corvey's face, then he nodded for Dez to follow, and opened the door to let him leave first. As he left, Vitale turned the light off in the room.

"Sleep tight."


Hours later Vitale had dug deep into this base. It was under more than one surname, but all of this looked incredibly familiar to the way the Peerless was set up. Everything was very clever, and the supplies in the base itself were untouchably brought in. The intel was solid in that there was a base there, it did have actual concrete walls, and it was Cobalt owned. But other than some high traffic concentration, there was no strong evidence to portray an arms depot. But there was more than just that. Vitale had called Davis up five minutes ago, and Davis had just walked in. Vi needed a second opinion at this point, because his head was swimming. "First things first I suppose," He said, turning to face the Captain, "Gunn, and what I found about her..."

Thus Vi explained Gunn's background findings, which weren't much, and mostly just his hypothesis of his findings. But at the very least, what he found correlated with her story, which made the timelines match how she told her side of the story. "Still haven't found anything concrete on Knox yet, but the others felt like it wasn't in keeping with the way Knox does his thing." Vi explained who was in the know about her, and who wasn't so far. After they finished discussing that, he moved on to Corvey, starting with his physical condition, and how the night and morning had progressed. "After that, I shut it down, and came up here to corroborate his story. And, now I'm stuck."

Vi stood after swishing all the intel he'd packaged over to the holotable, and stretched his back before walking over to it. He sifted through the pages and pictures and explained. "Here's what we know. Corvey said very clearly that he'd been stationed here before, and that Lee used this station to sell munitions to people he wanted captured. Which, threw me at first, but once I thought it through, if you had tons of money, or you stole the goods, it's a good plan. Entrapment I mean. It would also tell you who your target is dealing with if you got tight enough. But setting that to the side, the rest isn't as solid. I mean, yeah, this base is here, but then, so is a bar, a road, a hill. I mean, we don't know what's in it, if anything. According to public records, its a warehouse, and isn't hiring. But if it were, you'd need heavy equipment loading, class three silver card and POR certification, and need to be able to lift seventy pounds regularly though out your shift... they could be storing water heaters there. I mean, the silver card is explosives sure, but propane and zepheron solubles require that same clearance. The only things about this place that rub me wrong is the traffic itself."

Vitale sifted through to SAT Vouse, and highlighted several sped up days of their warehouse from a birds eye view. "Ok, so here are several ships and vehicles coming and going right? But what are we not seeing? Outgoing transports. This is five days sped up, I watched it slower earlier, but not one single transport lands and loads out. Everything that is outgoing, is small enough loads, that we could fit 'em in our shuttle." The video ended and Vi crossed his arms. "Not exactly solid evidence that this is a munitions plant, although, my friend's dad used to work at Rapid Translines, and they only had like twenty bays, and they were constantly flipping transports. So how is this even close to profitable? But again, that's only if it's really weapons stored there." Vi sat back against the console, and sighed rubbing his eyes, "I don't know. Maybe we didn't hit him with enough heat... Either way, there's certainly nothing here that screams 'Illegal' so I'm callin it. I need fresh eyes on this."

[Roger Davis]

Another day was closing to an end, and the captain was once again speaking with Vitale to recap/try and solve all the gorram problems on the ship. The gunhand had called him to the bridge and went straight into everything: Gunn's history, Syndicate policy, personal feelings, Corvey interrogation, tracking Cobalt leads, and further speculation.

Notably, Vitale rattled off the information with Ollie and Nate not only in the room but actively listening and at times participating, even contributing to the report. 'So I guess operational security is out the window.' Part of the plan had been to keep the entire discussion about Gunn secretly being a cop who wanted to kill Knox as a secret. Maybe Roger hadn't made it clear enough that he neither wanted word leaking out ahead to Onas about the threat nor for crew members to take out the "rat" on their own.

Fortunately the crew seemed to be accepting of this new Abigail Gunn. And "crew" would be the appropriate word because damn near half the ship was on the bridge when the discussion was had when you add in Chuck following Roger into Ops and Jericho just sitting quietly at a console in the background. Even a deep rooted Syndy man like Nate seemed to understand Gunn's motivation, trusted her competency and loyalty to the Peerless, and understood that she wasn't just out for blood but justice. Maybe a time would come when she had to be dealt with or Onas would need to be warned but now apparently was not that time.

The report on Gunn was pretty much just solid confirmation of their earlier conversation. What could be found on Abigail was found and it checked out. Abigail Gunn was a real person with a real life until she dropped off the map a few years ago. She looked like Gunn with a few basic superficial changes attributable to going from Core cop to Border criminal. Gunn had been an Interpol agent and her father, also Interpol, had been killed under suspicious circumstances. The input from the more seasoned Syndicate members confirmed the suspicions about whether it was indeed Knox behind it. The style of death was similar but not identical to Knox and according to the others it's "not his style." But there had to be something there, right? People didn't just wind up dead in a ditch like that by accident.

After Gunn it was on to Corvey. Two days and only two rounds of interrogation (not counting short blackouts in between) and they already had a lead of sorts. Vitale laid out what he'd been told along with what he'd had time to follow up on. "It's something." Roger replied once the gunhand had finished his report. "Only one reason to store something out in the middle of nowhere on a moon that's pretty much in the middle of nowhere already." The captain flipped back the display to what public info there was on the traffic in and out. "Secrecy is more important than profit, and it seems that this place must be pretty stocked up."

The question remained as to whether it was actually what Corvey claimed it to be. Maybe it wasn't munitions but it seemed fairly clear that there was something worthwhile being hidden there. The bigger question, however, was whether it was connected to Lee or even to Cobalt in general. All the shipping going in and what little info they had on the location all traced to dummy corporations, another clear sign that something was up but it didn't lead them any further as to who was behind it all.

"Sound familiar?" Roger asked, turning to Chuck at his side. He already knew the answer.

"Sounds like Lee." Chuck replied. "Double dealing both sides of the conflict. Just a more refined version of what he did to us."

Roger nodded. It was eerily similar to the end of the Tavares Syndicate. Lee dealt with the criminals then came in later to kill the criminals and recover what he'd sent their way. By now Lee was apparently a master at it. "Same old tricks."

"Alright." Roger finally declared. "We've got nothing else so we'll set a course. We're near halfway to Georgia anyway. Put it at Dukkha shortly then continue on to Elphame. We'll get eyes on the target and take a closer look. If we've still got our suspicions then we'll just have to knock on the door and see what's inside." He glanced back toward the aft of the ship, the direction of the brig, and added, "We'll keep at him but change up the methods for now. See if we can't get more intel either potential new targets or learning that this one is complete crap."

The captain already had an idea to REALLY change things up. "Gunn is reinstated as if nothing happened besides a name change. Y'all understand to keep tight lipped about this, correct?" he looked around the room for affirmatives. "Alright, good. Because I think Mister Corvey might get paid a visit by an Alliance Interpol officer."

Halfway through leaving, Roger turned back and said, "Get some rest tonight. Right back at it tomorrow." He held up the data card from their last meeting and added, "I ran a check on the girl, Esmay. Looks good but I'd like a second set of eyes on it when you've got the time." He tossed the small card to the gunhand and turned to leave as Nate began to talk with Dukkha's "tower."